Ideas with Impact
UNB Faculty of Management

Anyone who has graduated from the faculty of business administration this past decade knows the name Dr. Daniel Coleman.

He has presided over more business graduations than almost anyone in his long time position as Dean. Holding the title for three consecutive terms (12 years), he is officially the faculty's longest serving Dean.

It is a long time to serve in this role, and Dr. Coleman has decided it was long enough. His term ends on July 1, 2011, and he will be handing over the reins to the newly appointed Dean, Dr. Robert Austin.

Fostering relationships of trust and mutual respect among faculty members was extremely important to Dr. Coleman, and by doing so he has been instrumental in developing the faculty's now innovative environment. During his tenure as Dean, Dr. Coleman has been at the helm for a lot of major changes in both the BBA and MBA programs.

Changes in the BBA program included tightening admission requirements, continuing experiential learning programs such as the Student Investment Fund and the Export Partnering Program, implementing new programs such as co-op and the aviation concentration, as well as developing the entrepreneurship field into a full concentration. "Special thanks to Martin Wielemaker and Andrew Gaudes are due", says Coleman, "for their work in building the entrepreneurship program and especially for their efforts in creating the Activator program."

The biggest change in the BBA program by far, however, was the complete program overhaul that took place in 2002-2003. The overhaul gave students the option to take majors instead of just concentrations. This was made possible by reducing the required courses (in all fields) by half and giving students more room in their third and fourth years to take the courses they want to take. Today, the majority of graduating students have completed majors.

In the MBA program, changes included implementing professional development classes to help prepare students for professional work environments and learn about corporate social responsibility, and adding more joint programs such as Sport and Recreation Management and Engineering Management.

Dr. Coleman also oversaw the development of new international programs, such as the BBA program in Singapore, as well as the MBA programs in Poland and Ukraine.

When asked what his best memories were while serving as Dean of the faculty, Dr. Coleman said, "First and foremost, my best memories are of seeing all the students come through the program and succeed." There are many students that have gone on to do great things. Another great memory he mentioned was seeing the major changes listed above take place, and seeing the faculty’s culture change from being very conservative to more open and innovative.

Now that his time as Dean is coming to an end, he is looking forward to the future. Starting immediately on July 1, he is taking a six-month leave where he will go for a vacation backpacking through the Appalachian Trail with his wife, Michele, and spend six weeks teaching leadership in Trinidad and Tobago.

After the six month period is over, Dr. Coleman will be starting his new position with UNB as the Assistant Vice-President Academic. There he will be working on developing the international strategy for the campus and assisting with the implementation of UNB's Strategic Plan.

Although he will no longer be the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration, he is not going very far away. In fact he will still be teaching at least one class each semester. So, we’ll most likely be seeing him at many more graduation ceremonies to come!